Yale faces $165,000 fine after university 'fails to report' four sex offenses

By Ed Stannard

Thursday, May 16, 2013

NEW HAVEN -- Yale University faces a $165,000 fine for "very serious and numerous" violations of the law requiring Yale to report incidents of crime on campus.

The U.S. Department of Education, in an April 19 letter to President Richard Levin, charged that Yale violated the Clery Act, which also requires the university to define its security policies.

According to the letter, Yale did not report four "forcible sex offenses in its campus crime statistics," two each in 2001 and 2002.

Yale admitted the omission in 2004 and said it had implemented corrective action, but "the correction of violations does not diminish the seriousness of not correctly reporting these incidents at the time they occurred," according to the letter, signed by Mary E. Gust of the Education Department's office of student aid and program compliance.

The Education Department began investigating Yale's compliance with the Clery Act in October 2004 after an article was published in the July-August 2004 edition of the Yale Alumni Magazine titled "Lux Veritas and Sexual Trespass," the letter states.

Department personnel were on campus June 18-22, 2007, reviewing Yale Police Department incident reports and files concerning student disciplinary actions for 2001 to 2005. Yale staff members and students also were interviewed, according to the letter.

The Education Department notified Yale on April 12, 2010, that it found Yale had not complied with the Clery Act, and Yale responded in July. A final determination was sent to Yale on May 23, 2011.

Gust wrote, "These failures endangered Yale's students and employees who must be able to rely on the disclosures of campus crime statistics, policies and statements, and the accurate reporting of crime statistics to take precautions for their safety," the letter states, adding that the lack of compliance "constitutes an inability to administer properly the Title IV program," which covers student financial aid.

The Education Department also cited Yale for "not properly defining its campus for the purpose of reporting crime statistics," naming seven "spaces" in Yale-New Haven Hospital, which are used by Yale School of Medicine personnel for "faculty office visits, seeing patients and/or conducting clinical training for students."

Y-NH and Yale University are separate corporations, though many physicians have appointments in both institutions.

Gust's letter said that "In determining the amount of a fine, the department considers both the gravity of the offense and the size of the institution."

Gust fined Yale $27,500, the maximum allowed, for each of the four forcible sex offenses from 2001 and 2002; $27,500 for failure to define space in Y-NH as part of Yale's campus; and $27,500 for Yale's "failure to include seven (7) required policy statements in its calendar year 2004 (annual security report)."

The fine was to be imposed May 9 unless Yale requested a hearing or submitted material "indicating why the fine should not be imposed."

In an emailed statement, Yale spokesman Thomas Conroy wrote, "Yale fully supports the Department of Education's mandate under the Clery Act and believes that student safety is of paramount importance. The university is fully committed to maintaining a robust program of campus security policies and campus crime statistics reporting that contains all of the elements prescribed by the Clery Act.

"However, the University believes that the Department's imposition of maximum fines is not warranted based on the particular situations that resulted in findings of violations and, as a result, does not meaningfully advance the goals of the Clery Act," the statement said.

"The University has therefore requested that the Department reconsider and lower the fine. These fines deal with reporting in 2004 or earlier."